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Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

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Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#81

Post by jren207 »

bdavbdav wrote: post #71
muzzgg wrote: post #48

is there not an opensource alternative? i mean its webscraping which is very established surely it exists. anyways we should bring them traction if they too arent evil

I don’t know what the (country) equivalent is, but the UK has HUKD - they need an extension.

There wouldn't be an extension because it wouldn't make money. This is the whole reason behind how Honey works. Honey is using its existence as an extension to steal commission, and partnering with retailers to suppress certain higher value coupons. HUKD has adverts on its website as one of its means of making money. Something which obviously you couldn't do via an extension or users wouldn't install it.

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#82

Post by tommica »

xyst wrote: post #21
matlo wrote: post #8

This was really wild to watch. Honey is so masterfully crafted to be deceiving. I had it installed years ago, and it intuitively felt like something was scammy, so I uninstalled it. Really incredible work by MegaLag. It seems to be a wholesome trend among creators like Coffeezilla, etc. I hope more of this rot will surface.

I am more impressed by the thoroughness of this IJ report than Honey’s browser extension which just re-writes affiliate cookies. Honey is a parasite stealing from other parasites.

They're trying to position themselves as Yelp of coupons. They snatch coupons that people use (for example 90% off special coupons meant for specific people, that just happened to have the extension installed), then they have a partner program for companies that allows the partners to control what coupons honey can apply on their site.

You don't need to join it, but then your customers get automagically the high value coupons applied, but if you pay them $XX per month, you can limit what gets applied.

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#84

Post by piva00 »

Kapura wrote: post #5

This is absolutely wild. In a just society this would be illegal. Why are we just hearing about this now? this is the most rot economy, rent-seeking behaviour imaginable.

The age of leechy middlemen has made me completely cynical about any new app (and most times tech in general).

It's wild how quickly online businesses went from exciting to shady and scammy.

Feels like 2003-2013 was a golden age for internet services.

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#85

Post by mirsadm »

piva00 wrote: post #84
Kapura wrote: post #5

This is absolutely wild. In a just society this would be illegal. Why are we just hearing about this now? this is the most rot economy, rent-seeking behaviour imaginable.

The age of leechy middlemen has made me completely cynical about any new app (and most times tech in general). It's wild how quickly online businesses went from exciting to shady and scammy. Feels like 2003-2013 was a golden age for internet services.

It's becoming difficult to trust anything on the internet. It's quite sad.

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#87

Post by imslavko »

olliej wrote: post #32

This is basically the same scam the Brave does

I am a heavy user of Brave and I would love for you to expand on what you mean.

For those curious, here is the open-code repo of all Chromium changes Brave applies. I have not read every commit myself, so any flagging would be appreciated: https://github.com/brave/brave-core

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#88

Post by tantalor »

antifa wrote: post #38
operatingthetan wrote: post #24

I feel like this should be up to the affiliate networks to kick Honey out of their programs for TOS violations right? Or Google removing it from the Chrome store?

I feel like if I did this, I would be charged under the CFAA with at least 5 years prison time.

Agreed, this feels like fraud

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#89

Post by palmfacehn »

antifa wrote: post #38
operatingthetan wrote: post #24

I feel like this should be up to the affiliate networks to kick Honey out of their programs for TOS violations right? Or Google removing it from the Chrome store?

I feel like if I did this, I would be charged under the CFAA with at least 5 years prison time.

"Cookie Stuffing" Internet Fraud Schemer Pleads Guilty

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdal/pr/cookie-stuffing-interne...

Re: Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam [video]

#90

Post by winwang »

palmfacehn wrote: post #89
antifa wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like if I did this, I would be charged under the CFAA with at least 5 years prison time.

"Cookie Stuffing" Internet Fraud Schemer Pleads Guilty https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdal/pr/cookie-stuffing-interne...

Thank you, this is incredibly relevant!
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